OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 221, 13 November 1995
HUNGARIAN, SLOVAK PREMIER AT ODDS OVER LANGUAGE BILL. Hungarian Prime
Minister Gyula Horn said Hungary will seek urgent consultations with the
Council of Europe after no progress was made in talks with his Slovak
counterpart, Vladimir Meciar on Slovakia's controversial language bill,
Hungarian and Slovak newspapers reported. The two leaders met in Berlin
on 10 November while participating in an international conference on
European integration. Meciar stressed that the bill does not alter or
affect the use of minority languages and that further consultations with
Horn are difficult since the bill is now before the parliament. In other
news, the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia and several other Church
organizations have expressed opposition to aspects of the language law,
Pravda reported on 11 November.-- Zsofia Szilagyi and Sharon Fisher
HUNGARIAN HEALTH WORKERS STAGE DEMONSTRATION. Some 60,000 health workers
demonstrated outside Hungary's parliament building on 11 November,
demanding a 35% wage increase, a 10% increase in state funds for health
institutions in 1996, and the possibility of early retirement, Hungarian
media reported. Mihaly Kokeny, political state secretary at the Ministry
of Welfare, told Nepszava on 12 November that the health workers' wage
demands could not be met in the first half of 1996, and he proposed
further negotiations. The health workers say they will stage strikes if
the government does not guarantee a wage hike. The health workers are
the third group to protest the government's rigorous stabilization
program. -- Zsofia Szilagyi
HUNGARIAN OPPOSITION LEADER OUTLINES NEW PLATFORM. Jozsef Torgyan, the
populist leader of the Smallholders' Party, on 11 November told a crowd
of 10,000 at a Budapest sports hall that he expects early elections by
next fall and that his party is likely to repeat the 1945 election
victory of its predecessor, the historical Smallholder's Party,
Hungarian newspapers reported. The Smallholders popularity reached that
of the Socialists in September owing to growing popular discontent with
the ruling coalition. Torgyan said his party's top priority is to
provide an alternative to "the ransacking liberal-bolshevik power." As
part of its economic program, the Smallholders' Party will examine the
country's external and internal debts and release all relevant details
once it takes power, Torgyan said. -- Zsofia Szilagyi
ROMANIAN PRESIDENT REJECTS BISHOP TOKES'S "ALTERNATIVE RECONCIL-IATION"
PROPOSAL. Ion Iliescu on 12 November rejected Bishop Laszlo Tokes's
alternative proposal for Romanian-Hungarian reconciliation (see OMRI
Daily Digest, 1 November 1995), Radio Bucharest reported. He said that
proposal, based on the South Tyrol model, led to the "extremist
conclusion" that the only way toward reconciliation would be to grant
autonomy to the Hungarian minority. Iliescu further accused Tokes of
"systematically spreading lies about the situation of the Hungarian
minority in Romania." Meanwhile, Bela Marko, leader of the Hungarian
Democratic Federation of Romania, said Iliescu's proposal for
reconciliation was not a serious attempt to resolve differences but was
merely aimed at postponing a bilateral treaty between Romania and
Hungary, Reuters reported on 10 November. -- Matyas Szabo
[As of 12:00 CET]
Compiled by Jan Cleave

Monday, 13 November1995
Volume 2, Issue 220
BUSINESS NEWS
-------------
**MAKING IT RIGHT FOR PRIVATIZATION**
Hungary's Finance Minister says his government won't shy away
from laying off workers in the energy sector in order to
ensure that it's streamlined in preparation for privatization.
Lajos Bokros told an international conference on the
privatisation of the Hungarian utility sector that "we will
pursue the privatization of those sectors in spite of any kind
of protest which may take place." Bokros says the real
problem isn't that wages are low but that there are too many
employees. Bokros stressed that there will be layoffs, if
necessary. Hungary's electricity unions are threatening to
strike over their demand for a 20 percent pay hike. Last
Wednesday they held a two-hour warning strike at the Tisza
coal-fired power station. The Hungarian government has said
it can increase pay 21 percent to profitable state companies
that show improved productivity. Workers in loss-making firms
are limited to six percent raises. The Hungarian electricity
utility MVM is expected to lose 120 million dollars this year.
**HUNGARIAN HEALTH STRIKE?**
Thousands of Hungarian health care workers rallied outside
parliament Saturday. They're demanding a 35 percent pay
increase. They also want cuts in welfare spending to stop.
Democratic Union of Health Workers President Judit Gulyas told
the demonstrators they had to stand together before presenting
a petition to the speaker of parliament. Union leaders met
last week with Prime Minister Gyula Horn. But they failed to
persuade him to accept their demands and are now planning a
strike. The government has offered the health care workers a
20 percent raise.
**CET'S MARKET ANALYSIS**
All of central Europe's bourses drifted sideways last week.
Exchanges in Warsaw, Prague, and Budapest all lost ground.
CET's David Fink has details in this week's market analysis.
Czech shares are continuing to limp through a consolidation
period on the Prague Stock Exchange. The PX50 closed last week
at 434 point one. That's down 7.2 points. Activity on the
bourse was overshadowed by rhetoric off it as Swedish forestry
group Assi Doman and Bahamas-based investor Michael Dingman
squared off for what could be the country's first significant
takeover battle. Both groups are vying for control of the
paper concern Sepap. A shareholders' meeting is scheduled for
November 21st. Dingman's Stratton Investments, in conjunction
with the Harvard Funds investment group claims to have a
controlling stake in Sepap. AssiDoman hold a third of the
firm's shares. Miroslav Nosal of Patria Finance expects
there'll be more takeovers because investors are trying to buy
shares ahead of an expected securities law amendment that
should strengthen small shareholders' rights. That would make
it more expensive to take large stakes in Czech firms.
Polish shares rose slightly last week after first round results
of last Sunday's presidential election corresponded with
market expectations. Analysts say a second-round victory by
President Lech Walesa over social democrat Aleksander
Kwasniewski on November 19 could help spur growth. The WIG
index closed at 8,164.4 points, down 29.3 points. Bohdan
Kornacki, an analyst at Wielkopolski Bank Kredytowy brokerage
says investors view Walesa a little more favorably than
Kwasniewski. So, according to Kornacki, if Walesa leads in
opinion polls that should help the market a little. Analysts
say the exchange could challenge strong resistance levels at
8,300 and 8,400 points by the middle of this week if Walesa is
leading in opinion polls. But analysts are warning investors
might shun traded stocks next week and buy shares at public
offerings of the Olawa and Kety non-ferrous metal plants.
Prices drifted sideways on the Budapest Stock Exchange last
week. That confirmed the predictions of market players who
forecast a continuation of the see-sawing trend. The BUX index
closed Friday at 1,509.37 points, down 1.29. Traders say,
despite good corporate fundamentals, .interest in Hungarian
shares has been moderate. They say that's because investors
are taking a wait-and-see stance ahead of foreign placements
by drug maker Richter and national oil and gas company MOL.
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